THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AND WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT ABILITY OF THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS IN SMP NEGERI 40 PALEMBANG
A Thesis By
NATALIA PUTRI
Student’s Registration Number 1704410008 English Education Study Program
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF TRIDINANTI PALEMBANG
2021
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DEDICATED AND MOTTOS
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This thesis is presented to :
Allah SWT for blessing me to finish this thesis and the prophet Muhammad SAW who always guides me to be a good muslim.
My dearest and the most extraordinary parent who are the most beautiful blessing from God along my life. My Father (Ahmad Rusdi) and My mother (Siti Aisyah), thanks a lot of for your pray, your sacrifies, great attention, love, and all of meaningfull thing that you gave to me.
My beloved brother and sisters (Dendy, Nia, Intan, and Delva) thanks for your support, love and prayer.
My beloved advisors (Jenny Elvinna Manurung, M.Pd. and Yunani Atmanegara, M.Pd) thank you very much for your guidance, help, advice, and motivation during the process of making this thesis.
My classmates thank you for all from the beginning we entered college till I can finish my thesis.
PSHT brother who have helped me.
All my lecturer. Thank for your knowledge during study at Tridinanti University Palembang
Tridinanti university of Palembang as my Almamater.
MOTTO
Do your best today, because tomorrow may not be able to do it ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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Alhamdulillah to Allah SWT, the writer could finally finish her thesis. This thesis was written on the basis of the study that the writer conducted from July to October 2021 at SMP Negeri 40 Palembang.
This thesis is submitted to fulfill one the requirements to accomplish S1 degree of Faculty of Teacher Training Education, English Study Program at Tridinanti University Palembang.
In finishing this thesis, the writer would like to give grateful thanks to people who had helped, guided, supported, and suggested in process of writing of the thesis, they are:
1. Nyayu Lulu Nadya, M.Pd, as the Dean of Faculty of Theacher Training and Education.
2. Jenny Elvinna Manurung, M.Pd, as the Head of English Study Program.
3. Jenny Elvinna Manurung, M.Pd, as the first advisor and Yunani Atmanegara, M.Pd as the second advisor for their guidance in writing her thesis.
4. All the lectures at University of Tridinanti Palembang especially of Faculty of Teacher Training and Education.
5. Wahyuni, S.Pd., M. Si, as the Head of SMP Negeri 40 Palembang, vice principle and staff. Oktaviana Nirmala, S.Pd, and Sutiah, S.Pd, as the teacher of English to supported and helped during the research.
6. All the students of VIII.1, VIII,2, VIII.4, VIII.5 and VIII.9 at SMP Negeri 40 Palembang who wanted to contribute their time and participation during the research.
7. Her beloved Parents and her friends to their wonderful support, prayer, unlimited patience and finance thanks for giving to the best in her life.
Finally, the writer realizes that this thesis is still have errors in writing this thesis. Therefore, It would be a pleasure to give comments and suggestions from the readers to made be a better research paper in the future. The writer hopes this
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thesis is useful to readers and could be as a reference to other researcher for the next thesis.
Palembang, Oktober 2021
Natalia Putri
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ABSTRACT
The purposes of this research were to find out the correlation between students’
vocabulary mastery and writing descriptive text and the contribution of vocabulary mastery on writing ability. The population of the study was all of the 8th grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang. In choosing the sample, purposive sampling was used that involved 134 students. The data were collected by using vocabulary mastery and writing descriptive text ability tests. The data were analyzed by using Pearson Product Moment to investigate the correlation between both variables and regression analysis. The results showed that the coefficient of r-value was 0.557. The category of correlation between vocabulary mastery and writing ability showed a moderate correlation. It was found that there was significant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and writing descriptive text ability of the eighth grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang.
There was also contribution of vocabulary mastery to writing descriptive text ability of the eighth grade students as much 31%. Therefore, the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted. In other words, having a rich vocabulary mastery can make students easier for students to write especially for writing descriptive text.
Keywords: vocabulary mastery, writing ability, descriptive text.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
COVER...i
APPROVAL SHEET...ii
DEDICATION AND MOTTO...iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...vi
SURAT PERNYATAAN...vii
ABSTRACT...viii
TABLE OF CONTENT...ix
LIST OF TABLES...xii
LIST OF FIGURES...xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES...xiv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION...1
1.1 Background of the Study...1
1.2 Problem of the Study...5
1.2.1 Limitation of Problem...5
1.2.2 Formulation of the Problems...5
1.3 Objectives of the Study...5
1.4 Significances of the Study...6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...7
2.1 The Concept of Vocabulary Mastery...7
2.1.1 Definition of Vocabulary...7
2.1.2 Kinds of Vocabulary...8
2.1.3 The Importance of Vocabulary Mastery...9
2.1.4 The Factors Influencing Vocabulary Mastery...10
2.2 Writing...12
2.2.1 Definition of Writing...12
2.2.2 The Characteristics of Good Writing...12
2.2.3 The Stages of Writing...13
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2.3 Descriptive Text...14
2.4 Previous Related Studies...16
2.5 Hypothesis...17
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD...19
3. Research Method...19
3.1. Research Design...19
3.2 Research Variables...20
3.3 Operational Definition...20
3.4 Population and Sample...21
3.4.1 Population...21
3.4.2 Sample ...21
3.5 Techniques for Collecting Data...23
3.5.1 Vocabulary Mastery...23
3.5.2 Writing Test...23
3.6 Validity...25
3.6.1 Validity of the Vocabulary Mastery Test...26
3.6.2 Validity of the Writing Test...27
3.7 Reliability of the Test...28
3.7.1 Reliability of Vocabulary Mastery test...28
3.7.2 Reliability of Writing Test...30
3.8 Techniques for Analyzing Data...30
3.8.1 Descriptive Analysis...30
3.8.2 Normality Test...31
3.8.3 The Correlation Analysis...31
3.8.4 Regression Analysis...32 x
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS...33
4.1 Findings of the Study...33
4.1.1 Descriptive Analysis...33
4.1.1.1 The Result of Vocabulary Mastery...34
4.1.1.2 The Result of Writing Ability Test in Descriptive Text...34
4.1.2 Normality Test...35
4.1.3 The Correlation Analysis...36
4.1.4 Regression Analysis...37
4.2 Interpretation...37
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS...39
5.1 Conclusion...39
5.2 Suggestions...40
REFERENCES...42
APPENDICES...45
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Population of the study...21
Table 2. Sample of the this study...22
Table 3. Scoring rubric of writing...24
Table 4. The test specifications of vocabulary mastery...27
Table 5. The test specifications of writing performance...28
Table 6. Classification of reliability...29
Table 7. The result of reliability...29
Table 8. The reliability of writing test...30
Table 9. Students level achievement...31
Table 10. The interpretation of correlation...32
Table 11. The descriptive analysis of vocabulary mastery...33
Table 12. The descriptive analysis of writing descriptive text ability...34
Table 13. The data distribution of vocabulary mastery...34
Table 14. The data distribution of writing descriptive text ability...35
Table 15. Normality test...35
Table 16. Correlation analysis...36
Table 17. Regression Analysis...37
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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1. Example of Descriptive Text...15 Figure 2. The Correlation Design...19
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LIST OF APPENDIX
Appendix A : Instruments
Appendix B : The Result of Try Out Appendix C : The Result of validity Test Appendix D : The Result of Reliability Test
Appendix E : The Result of Writing Test Reliability
Appendix F : The Descriptive Analysis of Vocabulary Mastery Appendix G : The Descriptive Analysis of Writing Test
Appendix H : The Result of Normality Test Appendix I : The Result of Correlation Analysis Appendix J : The Result of Regression Analysis Appendix K : Other Documents
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses about (1) background of study, (2) problems of study, (3) objectives of the study, and (4) the significances of the study.
1.1 Background of the Study
Nowadays, English has become an important language in the era of globalization. It is an international language which is widely spoken in many countries as native language, second language, or a foreign language. It is considered to be the first international language to communicate among people from different countries. It is also used at many books and other written sources.
Furthermore, English covers four skills to master namely speaking, reading, listening and writing. There are also three important components of English such as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Those components play important roles in supporting the language skills used.
Vocabulary is one of the most important factors that need to be mastered by language learners. Thornbury (2002, p. 15) stated that having a broad vocabulary means knowing many words. Takac (2008, p. 4) adds that vocabulary can be defined intuitively as a dictionary or a set of words that have been taught in a foreign language. Meanwhile, Hiebert and Kamil (2005, p. 2) affirm that vocabulary has a special place among language components. Therefore, vocabulary is very helpful for young learners to think and expand the knowledge of words. Without vocabulary mastery, a person will not be able to speak
anything, will not be able to understand what he is reading, will not be able to write, nor will he be able to understand what he hears. In other words, language skills will be easy to master if learners have good vocabulary mastery.
Vocabulary mastery is closely related to language learning with limited mastery of words. Everyone also has limitations in understanding in terms of listening, reading, speaking, and writing. It can be said without understanding good vocabulary, language is nothing. Vocabulary plays a big role for learners in acquiring language (Cameron, 2001. p. 73). Considering the definition, vocabulary plays a very important role in understanding language, especially writing. Writing is one of the four skills that must be mastered by language learners. According to Spratt, Pulvernes, and Williams (2005, p. 26), writing is the activity of communicating ideas by using letters, words, phrases, and clauses from a series of interconnected sentences. Moreover, Graham and Perin (2007, p. 9) state that writing is a skill that refers to the use of strategies (such as planning, evaluating and revising texts) to achieve various goals, such as writing reports or expressing opinions with others. While, Bram (2012, p. 114) affirms that the term of writing can be defined as learners use written language throughout or share ideas with others, especially in the composition of one paragraph. As a skill, writing is often underestimated. But the facts show that teaching writing is not an easy task because students often face difficulties to write what they think and express it on a piece of paper or on a computer screen.
One of the difficulties in writing is the lack of vocabulary mastery.
Vocabulary is one important aspect in language learning. According to Khan
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(2005, p. 42), it is impossible to learn a language without mastering vocabulary.
When students want to learn language, they will first master the vocabulary.
Vocabulary is one of the problems faced by English learners. Because of limited vocabulary, the students have difficulty in conveying their ideas or thoughts well to others. Writing is a form of communication to express and pour ideas into writing (Nunan, 2003, p. 88). Therefore, having a lot of vocabulary can help the students in learning, especially in writing skill.
Furthermore, Harmer (2003, p. 31) stated that writing as one of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing has always been part of the syllabus in teaching English. Writing is one of the English skills learned by students at school, while vocabulary is a supporting component. However, According to Hedge (1990) citied in Yuliani (2016) stated that to learn the writing skill effectively may not be easy because they are several things should be considered, for instance, sentence structure, grammar, the word choice used, and so on. Some students who have little command of vocabulary may confront some problems while they are in the process of learning these skills. Therefore, this study tried to investigate the level of students’ ability in learning vocabulary and writing.
In the level of secondary school, many students still have difficulties in learning vocabulary mastery and writing skills, especially descriptive text.
Descriptive text is a text that explains or describes something, especially about person. The purpose of descriptive text is to describe or explain an object so that the reader can feel, see, and hear the object described clearly. There were several
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obstacles in teaching and learning vocabulary mastery and writing skills. First, students face many difficulties to express feelings and ideas in written form if they lack vocabulary. Second, the lack of vocabulary mastery may be seen from their learning English. After interviewing one of the teachers at Junior High School 40 Palembang, it was found that the students’ vocabulary mastery was low. It made them difficult to write. They sometimes wrote text without paying attention to the grammar or structure of descriptive text.
Some studies have revealed that vocabulary mastery have some effects and relationship with writing ability. The first study was conducted by Cahyani (2016) focusing on finding out the correlation between English vocabulary mastery and writing students’ ability at SMP Muhammadiyah Palangka Raya. The result of data analysis showed that there was a correlation between English vocabulary mastery and writing students’ ability at SMP Muhammadiyah Palangka Raya. The Second study was conducted by Muslim (2012). Based on his research results, it was found that there was a significant correlation between vocabulary mastery and students’ writing ability in narrative text. This means that vocabulary mastery affected students’ writing ability. The last study was conducted by Choi (2017).
Based on his research, it was found that there was a significant relationship between vocabulary and writing. From the statement above, it can be concluded that in order to write well, the students need a lot of vocabulary to be able to express their ideas through writing.
Based on the explanation above, the writer was interested in conducting a study entitled “The Correlation between Students’ Vocabulary Mastery and
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Writing Descriptive Text Ability of the Eight Grade Students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang”.
1.2 Problems of the Study 1.2.1 Limitation of the Problem
This study limited on studying the correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and writing descriptive text ability of the eight grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang. It also found out how much students’ vocabulary mastery contributed to writing descriptive text ability.
1.2.2 Formulation of the Problems
The problems of this study were formulated as follows:
1) Was there any significant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and writing descriptive text ability of the eight grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang?
2) How much did students’ vocabulary mastery contribute to writing descriptive text ability of the eight grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang?
1.2.3 The Objectives of the Study
Based on the problems above, the objectives of the study were as follows:
1) To find out whether there was any significant correlation or not between students’ vocabulary mastery and writing descriptive text ability of the grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang.
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2) To find out how much students’ vocabulary mastery contributed to writing descriptive text ability of the eight grade students in SMP Negeri 40 Palembang.
1.2.4 The Significances of the Study 1) For the Students
Hopefully, the results of this study were expected to be able to inform the students’ about the importance of vocabulary mastery and writing ability in English language learning. Thus, they can be motivated to increase their vocabulary in facing difficulties in writing.
2) For the Teachers
The results of this study could help teachers to encourage motivation and give effective way in improving students’ vocabulary mastery and writing ability.
So that students are more aware of the importance of vocabulary in learning English.
3) For the Writer and Others
The results of this study could provide valuable information, more experience and knowledge to the writer as a candidate English teacher in conducting research. So that it could provide more information for further writers. In addition, the results of this study were also expected to provide input for other writers to conduct similar research.
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